Best Of Season 5 | TRIPLE EPISODE | The FBI Files

In Alabama, a series of deadly attacks shocks the community and frustrates police. All the killers leave behind are the dead and the fleeting images on surveillance video tapes. Local police and federal agents follow the killer's trail along the East Coast. The shadowy fugitives are still on the run, but the F.B.I. will not give up the chase surveillance video is often the most accurate witness to a crime its images can speak for victims when they can't after three brutal murders were recorded in alabama suspects fled area had an arsenal of stolen weapons and swore they wouldn't be taken alive I'm Jim Calstrom former head of the FBI's New York office running through several states the fugitives tried to elude the FBI and agents hoped to capture them without further bloodshed in the 1990s birmingham alabama saw a drop in both its population and crime rate, but even in the safest cities killers can strike.

On May 18, 1996, a customer at a gas station discovered a body. Birmingham police responded to 911. Crime scene investigators determined that the victim, the station cashier, had been shot and killed. he was the only employee on duty that day the customer had not seen what happened to him the trail of blood led back to the store and behind the counter the blood indicated that the cashier lay briefly on the floor before leaving perhaps waiting for help He barely made it to the parking lot. Police first suspected a robbery, but there was money on the counter and the cash register had not been emptied.

There were no fingerprints pointing toward a suspect and no witnesses had seen anything. Investigators recovered security video tape from the store and sent it to the police laboratory. The tape had degraded because it had been reused many times in the recorder, so the images of the crime were blurry and few could be seen. details police technicians attempted to clean up the image electronically for detectives the enhanced tape gave investigators a better view The crime confirmed what the crime scene clue suggested: a lone customer shot the teller even though the employee complied with their demands. He seemed like he killed for no reason.

Technicians took video captures of individual frames and tried to enhance them to see the face. the perpetrator or any identifying characteristics Birmingham police hope to identify the suspect from the photographs reviewing mugshots could not find a match detectives interviewed friends and family of the victim trying to find any clues about the senseless murder no one The investigation stalled two months later, and 20 miles south of Birmingham a call came to the sheriff's office in Shelby County, Alabama. Sheriff James Jones received a report of two people at a pawn shop. We received the phone call, it really was not clear to us exactly what had happened, we had reason to believe that lives had been lost in the building.

It happened so rarely in our county that it really surprised me when I arrived on the scene. Emergency medical services determined that the owner of the pawn shop had died. multiple gunshots one employee was in critical condition with a gunshot wound to the head all other cards when you were outside the sheriff ordered deputies to stop any suspicious vehicles in the area we really didn't know what we were looking for at this time but we had the hope that our people would be smart enough if they saw something that was out of place and could recognize it.

Let's stop that vehicle and maybe give us some clues to stabilize it as much as they can in the field. Paramedics prepared the woman for the helicopter ride to the hospital. Authorities determined that more than two thousand three hundred dollars in cash and jewelry were missing and that the gun boxes were almost empty since the pawn shop had frequent customers, it was not difficult for the crime scene technicians. Raising hundreds of latent fingerprints connecting one of them to the crime could be impossible. The lead investigator was Shelby County Sergeant Michael de Hart. There was actually a lot of evidence to process, dust off fingerprints, etc., but we found nothing.

Definitely as a result of that, the only thing we found that we had were bullet casings that were left at the post, the murder weapon was a 380 automatic pistol at the time, we didn't know if this was a one-time event. that had occurred or if this was part of a larger series of events, the shooting at the store was similar to the previous murder at the gas station, but this crime occurred during a robbery, detectives searched the security video of the store and then They remembered something I was talking to. The owner a couple of weeks ago and was talking about putting in a dummy machine.

He was talking about putting a real one in this area. Sergeant Russell Yarn found the other machine on the actual surveillance video tape. The second or actual VCR continued to work even afterward. They grabbed, unplugged and removed the tape from the dummy video player and it continued recording even until the moment I pressed the eject button, the video tape showed two young men entering the store at 3:23 p.m. They cornered the store owner forcing him to get behind the counter with an employee the agents saw a red van barely visible outside the store, it could be the getaway vehicle, the suspects ransacked the pawn shop for 13 minutes while the employees watched , then they shot the hostages at point blank range, we didn't see anything that told us that These two victims resisted or tried to resist, they were very docile and I'm sure they did it in the hope of living, but instead, their lives were taken by the execution style and it was very disturbing to see what I don't understand.

This is just Garbage Sergeant John and his partner, Sergeant Donald King, found more evidence near the place where the victims had been murdered. While we were doing our search at the pawn shop, we saw a small pile of trash behind the counter and you know. I noticed it at the time, you know why the trash was there, there was no trash can, it didn't really make much sense at the time, there were also some metal filings on the floor mixed in with the trash filings that probably came from a key-making machine installed on the counter detectives collected them for further examination believe the killers took the garbage can but did not know why federal law requires that anyone who buys or sells firearms must keep records of the transactions that detectives asked another employee to carry They collected the store's gun manifest by comparing it to weapons still in the store.

They realized that the suspects had taken an entire arsenal. There were 32 stolen weapons in the hands of vicious killers. We were very worried about what else they would do. What were they doing now and what? Would they do it again in the future because of the potential for more violence from the heavily armed killers? Sheriff's detectives immediately contacted the Shelby County District Attorney's Office. Prosecutor Randy Hillman joined the investigation in which we would like to be at the forefront of any investigation. it makes things a lot easier for us it makes things a lot easier for the police officers working the scene and the surveillance video tape was the

best

evidence investigators had in finding the killers and showed that the suspects were carrying many of the stolen items in a guitar case.

One of them shot both the store owner and the employee. At one point his gun jammed almost mechanically, he cleared and reloaded and then continued shooting. The two suspects got into the red van that was waiting for them, both on the passenger side. There must have been a driver. a third suspect Technicians took photos from video captures, but the quality was poor. We had photographs of these individuals carrying out the execution. We had a partial photograph of the vehicle they were in, but we didn't know who they were and the level of violence here was critical.

For us, I mean we had to stop these guys before it happened again less than eight hours after shooting investigators learned that the pawn shop employee had died at the hospital. Now there were two innocent murder victims. Technicians with the Alabama Department of Forensic Sciences examined the bullet fragments. and the shell casings found in the pawn shop were compared to those used in other shootings in the area, including the Birmingham gas station shooting, to see if the same weapon was used, but the bullets from the pawn shop did not match any another, but investigators thought the two crimes could be related, they turned to the public for help.

We were able to distribute photographs to local media in the area and requested their help in getting the photographs out to the public and asking for help in identifying the perpetrators of these crimes. They kept several aspects of the crime secret to help more reliably identify media exposure generated dozens of calls. Well, how many types were there? A caller said that while driving in Birmingham he saw two men who matched the description of the pawn shop killers. They carried weapons and a guitar case. From a red van to a house the details of the guitar case had been hidden from the public.

Okay, great, the caller said he knew the men, but only by street names, Turkey and Maine. Hey Mark, Shelby County detectives took the information to Birmingham police. The subway. The department had a database of street names. Türkiye was an alias for 16-year-old Marcus Presley. He looked like the shooter in the pawn shop murders. Mane was 18 years old. Le Samuel Gamble. He looked like the second pawn shop robber. They both had long youth records. They went into the areas where We knew from court documents where Gamble lived that the people we were looking for were very dangerous men who had killed before we feared they would kill again, so when we undertook these searches we wanted to use every precaution. of security. available to us, so we used dynamic tactical entries to the residences we searched, the arrest team cleared the house where Gamble had been living, there was no one home, no one in the house, no one, a couple of cold-blooded killers with an arsenal of stolen weapons remained there. on the loose on july 28, 1996 alabama investigators searched for marcus presley, samuel gamble and a third suspect believed to be involved in a double murder at a pawn shop, the tactical arrest team entered the home where he lived the suspect gamble but they did not find anyone there armed with Detectives with a warrant searched the house.

Shelby County Sergeant Russell Young recovered evidence directly linking the suspect to the pawn shop murders. During the search we found the video tape that came from the fictitious VCR. It was destroyed. The box was cracked and broken. The tape was taken from the uh. the house and told us that they were aware that they were being recorded and had the presence of mind to stop and try to remove or eliminate all evidence of the crime. They also found an empty guitar case that seemed to be the one they took from the pawn shop, the Sergeant Donald King found more evidence in the kitchen, we were able to find a trash can and at the bottom it had some labels, price tags, etc. of some of the weapons and some of the jewelry from the pawn shop. store and also contained some of the same metal shavings that we were able to link to the burton from the robbery scene.

Sergeant Michael de Hart was frustrated that none of the 32 stolen weapons were found at the time we did the investigation. In the search we knew three people were involved, but the third person we didn't know when we searched the residence we found a pay check stub in a coat pocket that had the name Steven McKenzie on it from a business in the area. from Boston, so paychecks maybe Mackenzie was the third suspect who drove the getaway vehicle recently had no local address but neighbors said he was a friend of Gamble and Pressley records indicate Marcus Presley lives with his grandmother.

There is nothing here that can be directly linked to the endeavor. Store investigators also searched that home, but found nothing related to the crime at 10 4 12 30 3rd Avenue West Presley. Presley's grandmother arrived home while the search warrant was being executed. Yes ma'am, we have a search warrant to search this residence. I can go? with my house not at this moment we are doing arobbers investigation but can you talk ma'am I'm chris currie with the shelby county sheriff's office the detective showed you video captures of the robbery tell me if you recognize him she admitted one of The men looked like her grandson.

She had done her

best

to raise Marcus, but he got involved with drugs and gangs and had been in trouble ever since. Thank you very much, you have been a great help, but again I apologize. She said he would disappear for weeks. at one point she was devastated to learn that he was now a murder suspect, the seemingly constant movement of the suspect, troubled prosecutor Randy Hillman, they were young, they were mobile, they had no base from which to operate, like normal people have. home. who came and went had several different residences that they frequented detectives canvassed the neighborhood where Gamble and Presley hung out interviewing anyone who might know the suspects several people in the neighborhood said that lately Gamble and Presley had been showing off jewelry and giving away guns to members of his street gang some said they had heard the suspects were still in the area and offered addresses where the youths might be the detectives checked all the addresses they bet and they appear to have disappeared we had one last place we wanted to go look before we go to house that particular day, we were on the way back and the suggestion was made by Samuel Gamble's uncle, let's go by his house and see if there is anyone there, we did and when we did we saw a red van. van matching the description of the vehicle used in the robbery had no license plates but they could see the vehicle identification number detectives noticed a Massachusetts parking permit in the corner of the windshield 6802 746 hoped Gamble's uncle had information About him he suspects the uncle agreed to answer his questions, but not at his house.

He didn't want to be seen with the police. They drove so they could talk. The uncle told investigators the truck belonged to Stephen McKenzie, a friend of his nephew. It was the same name. Like the one on Boston's pay stub, the uncle admitted that his nephew recently stayed at his house with McKenzie and the press lines the trio had cleared several days ago, Sergeant John believed the uncle knew details by principle that he really didn't want to give us. There was no useful information, but we continued and he admitted that they had left town and gone to Boston.

A parking permit check on the red Massachusetts vans confirmed that the truck belonged to Stephen McKenzie, the alleged getaway driver. Finally, the uncle gave investigators permission to search. On his property, he suggested they look under the porch. There the police found a paint gun. The gun's serial number matched one taken from the pawn shop. There was enough probable cause to seize Mackenzie's truck and process it as evidence, but technicians found nothing that linked him to the pawn shop robbery homicide with the possibility that the suspects had left the state. Shelby County authorities contacted FBI Special Agent Jeff Newton and requested help from the FBI in locating the suspects they had identified because they believed they were responsible for this terrible crime at the time.

I received information on the case from the sheriff's department representative and realized that we had enough probable cause at that time to request an illegal federal flight to avoid prosecution or the ufap order. The FBI again interviewed the suspect's friends and told Agents Gamble and Presley that they were acting. desperate and volatile and that the couple had promised that if the law ever caught up with them they would not be taken alive in alabama authorities struggled to find the men considered responsible for two robbery homicides the state increased the reward for the capture of samuel gamble marcus presley and stephen mckenzie at 100,000 fbi special agent jeff newton believed the suspects left alabama for boston anyone suspected of a double homicide is automatically ranked top priority immediately notified our boston office you have bad guys heading our way We believe that it may already be there.

I gave them many details. Everything I learned about Shelby County regarding its level of violence. You know what they look like. We send photographs. We sent complete physical descriptions to the FBI field office in Boston, Massachusetts. Special Agent Joseph Altman. received the priority call the three individuals were identified by us as ambitious killers who had made statements to the effect that they would not hesitate to kill again that they would not be captured alive or that they would take the life of any law The law enforcement officer who tried to stop them. Birmingham agents also sent Boston a list of places to investigate.

One was the construction company where suspect Stephen McKenzie had worked. The agents went to speak with the owner. The man said he had not seen the suspect in weeks. He was in the Boston area, he had not attempted to return to work, the owner had an employment record, but it did not contain any new address or other information that would help find the suspect. Boston authorities monitored the other addresses Birmingham had sent. including one from Samuel Gamble's other uncle but they didn't approach this house right away we didn't want to know we were watching this particular house we wanted to allow at least one or two areas of houses and in the area they could They returned after several hours, They saw a man leaving the residence, he was not one of the suspects, they waited until they were sure that he was alone and no one was watching him, Mr.

Special Agent Daniel and special agent friends. I would like to ask you a couple of questions. If you could, okay, do you live in that billy? He was hesitant to speak, but he said that neither Gamble's uncle nor the suspects were in the house, but that he hadn't seen them. Thank you very much again, he told us that both Gamble and Presley had been staying at this location but had since moved away. He didn't know where they moved to. We felt this location was no longer vital to our investigation, so we attached a search warrant and searched the house and discovered nothing.

Of prime value Another address on his list was in Roxbury, a suburb south of Boston, an agent set up surveillance there, which meant more hours with no promise of payment On August 1, 1996, the Boston FBI held a press conference , uh, we believe these individuals to be extremely dangerous, most likely armed, wanted in alabama, we would like to bring these individuals in. They distributed wanted posters and asked anyone with information to call a special tip line. The media campaign produced dozens of tips. one was an address outside boston where alleged getaway driver stephen mckenzie was said to be staying, it was not known if gamble and presley were with him, the tactical arrest team had to be prepared for a fight, Mackenzie was caught off guard, Gamble and Presley were nowhere to be found, the two fugitives remained.

Free and on the streets with an arsenal of stolen weapons In August 1996, the Boston SWAT team arrested one of three suspects who had fled Alabama after two robberies and homicides. The alleged getaway driver, Stephen McKenzie, was unarmed and taken for questioning. Good job guys, the researchers searched. At the house where he was staying they found jewelry that was later determined to be from the Alabama pawn shop that was stolen. They also recovered three weapons with the serial numbers of the weapons. Agents discovered they were among 32 guns stolen from the pawn shop, but nothing in the house indicated where Samuel Gamble and Marcus Presley were.

Boston officers arrested Mackenzie on a charge of receiving stolen property. They contacted prosecutor Randy Hillman in Shelby County, Alabama, immediately after receiving that phone call. We got on a plane and flew to Boston to help Boston. Investigators hoped McKenzie could lead them to the elusive armed killers. We knew the level of violence and the number of weapons they had and the danger they posed to other people. Shelby County authorities interviewed Mackenzie. Mr. McKenzie. Do you know why we are? Our biggest concern here is that these guns will be back on the streets and someone else will lose their lives.

Innocent people will confront him with the evidence they had waiting for a lenient sentence. The suspect started talking or whatever and drinking. He said he Presley and Gamble planned the pawn shop robbery in mid-July, stopping by the store to check it out. Gamble said it would be a good place to rob. There were guns, jewelry and cash inside and there was no security. I'm sure it was guaranteed. you know no one would get hurt it was just a get in and get out thing on july 25th they came back at mackenzie's bet and presley walked in while mackenzie waited they were just supposed to grab the money and valuables but then mackenzie heard gunshots. took what they came for and fled, mckenzie said Gamble and Presley had fled with him to Boston, I don't know, and that they could still be in the area somewhere, he claimed he didn't know where they were at the time, which I don't know.

I don't know if he gave us information about where they were staying, the different houses they may have gone to, and some other information that I think McKenzie kept from us. I think mckenzie knew more than what he was telling us at trial. Mackenzie's testimony would be attacked the prosecutor turned to the only irreproachable witness the surveillance video sent the tape to the FBI's audio and video processing laboratory in Quantico Virginia the task of cleaning the images fell to the director of the video program Dale Linden this tape was a vhs recording on a security system I had, I would say the quality is pretty poor resolution wise, I had a backlighting issue where the camera was facing the windows at some point, some of the people in this scene video appear to be silhouettes as people approached They reached the camera, the best images we were able to recover by focusing on the parts of the video where the perpetrators were closest to the camera.

Lyndon began to improve the images. Once we digitize these images, we will review each one and depending on what the problems are. We will apply different types of filter processes in this particular case, the first thing we did was make some contrast adjustments to make the images look brighter and focusing mainly on the subjects in this particular case, I felt that we made some improvements to get detail The results strengthened the case against Gamble and now authorities needed to catch them. The FBI continued its surveillance at a home in Roxbury Massachusetts where informants said the men could hide. the best lead yet for FBI Special Agent Joseph Altman.

We watched this house for approximately 48 hours. The street information we had was getting better and better. The whole time the people were hiding in this house we thought we saw them. a movement a movement in the house are you ready this is a special agent to ask or ready for SWAT the field agents told the SWAT team to prepare to enter just before the order to go was given a man left the house target the officers believed it was Gamble's uncle who they knew was on probation for a felony by accepting probation a person waives their fourth amendment rights can be stopped and searched at any time do not spend time on this procedure no I care about you the agents found a gun this was one of the weapons that was stolen during the robbery in Alabama one of the 32 weapons that were stolen told us that these guys were no longer in this house however we feel that since he was related with the subjects and then he had a stolen gun on him we couldn't take this information at face value so Boston SWAT went ahead and made the entry bet and Presley had sworn he would never be taken alive so the SWAT team prepared for a shootout, we felt the only way they were going to be removed from the house was by force, the tactical arrest team swept the house cleaning each room as they went, there was no one inside, no However, they found some travel bags belonging to Presley and Campbell, inside these bags were a couple of weapons as well as a photograph.

The photos showed the fugitives getting on a bus. The travel bags contained the shirts worn by Gamble and pressed in the pawn shop investigators also recovered one of the weapons used in the pawn shop robbery thank you officer thank you very much the uncle confirmed gamble and presley stayed at the house said they went on a bus to virginia where gamble's girlfriend lived the fbi andboston police had missed the dangerous fugitives for a matter of hours on august 5, 1996 fugitives liz samuel gamble and marcus presley eluded an arrest team in boston an uncle told officers that the men had gone to Virginia, where one had a girlfriend, but didn't know exactly where to narrow down the search.

The FBI obtained phone records from homes in Boston where the suspects may have stayed for nearly 48 hours. Agents reviewed the records. Searching for common numbers according to FBI Special Agent Joseph Altman, they found one. We found common phone numbers that occurred about two and a half months before the murders occurred and about a week after the murders occurred, the number was in Norfolk, Virginia. Boston area agents contacted the FBI's Norfolk field office on August 8. Special Agent John Harley received a message from Boston to apprehend the young fugitives. Youth can be a factor that makes someone a little more unpredictable if he is older and more determined in his ways.

We may even have a past pattern of behavior that we can observe and help us understand that person, but with these two very young individuals it turned out to be very difficult because they were not at all predictable at 5:30 the next morning. The fugitive task force arrived and an individual approached the door and we weren't sure if he matched the description or not initially but we went ahead and stopped him there at the door and asked if we could go ahead and give our consent to search his apartment, at which time he said we could see these guys, I had not seen him before, the resident recognized photographs of the suspects, the individual we spoke with provided us with information that he had recently had a party at his apartment and that two people matching Presley Gamble's description had come with a girl who knew the place was empty, but the resident gave officers the girl's address.

Time is starting to pass and then we have to head out to try to locate this apartment where this girlfriend who is associated with the two guys apparently lives. An arrest team quickly assembled outside the targeted apartment, a third-floor residence, Norfolk Police helped cordon off the area while officers assessed the building for entry. It is now around nine in the morning, the sun is already rising, and we were Worrying that if the two subjects were sleeping, they weren't going to sleep for much longer and we would prefer to go in if they were obviously not awake, the arrest team split into two groups and we went in, we decided to make our main group effort, use the most of people to climb the fire escape, which is not the most conducive route, but it was a route that we thought offered the biggest surprise.

Then we also stationed the two state police special agents at the front door which would have been in the interior hallway just to make sure the bad guys didn't run out, the agents didn't have time to get a search warrant for the apartment to get in and make a legal arrest, they would have to see the suspects or get permission they saw a resident through a back window and took their chance, we announced who we were and that we were looking for a couple of people and asked if they minded if We were taking a look at this older gentleman, then he stepped aside and nodded, I came in and that's when we made our entrance, they found Presley first, we immediately handcuffed him and took him into custody.

He did not have the opportunity to warn his friend. The agents positively identified Presley and Gamble from photographs and placed them under arrest. U.S. Marshals transported the fugitives back to Shelby County, Alabama, when they were questioned at the county jail. Samuel Gamble blamed Presley for the murders when they spoke to Marcus. presley had a different story each believed they had destroyed the surveillance tape presley and gamble both still thought there was no one alive from the robbery who could say exactly what happened they continued pointing at each other saying he was the one who did it or not It was me, it was someone else until they saw the videotape, once they saw the videotape, they realized that they couldn't lie about it anymore, that we actually had them doing the executions and the whole tenor of the conversation. changed and finally Marcus Presley after pointing his finger at several other places, Presley confessed and said that he committed the murder.

How about this Presley also confessed to another crime? He had been the shooter in the gas station murder in Birmingham. He said he thought the teller was going for a gun, so. shot him in 1997 the three suspects had separate trials for their role stephen mackenzie received 50 years an alabama jury convicted samuel gamble of capital murder and sentenced him to death for being part of the pawn shop murders marcus presley received the sentence to death for killing a gas station cashier, another jury sentenced him to death for the second time for killing the employees of the pawn shop.

When the jurors saw this tape, they were surprised. People are used to seeing violence on television and we have seen so much violence that one becomes indifferent. It gets old for you, this was a real videotape of two people being executed and it had a profound impact on the jury. In fact, the owner of the Palm Store unwittingly participated in the investigation of his own murder by having the fictitious VCR and playing it. that that tape in our hands showing the actual executions helped us solve this case much faster and with conviction and with absolute certainty, whereas if we had not had this tape it would have been a guessing game in the Midwest the fugitive The drug dealer He will do anything to avoid being captured.

His desperate career is fueled by drugs and marked by shootouts as he crisscrosses two states. Local and federal authorities are determined to fight back and continue to pursue them. When law enforcement officers become targets, no one is safe. When a meth dealer fleeing the law started shooting at cops, it took more than the police to stop him. I'm Jim Calstrom, former head of the FBI's New York office with an intrepid killer on the loose in the Midwest. Residents have to help The FBI, state and local police arrested the dealer and brought him to justice on February 2, 2000 on the quiet back roads of Lincoln County, Nebraska.

Lincoln County Sheriff's Deputy Stan McKnight was conducting a routine patrol when he saw a vehicle rapidly approaching from behind a brown pickup truck. The truck sped past McKnight, he saw Texas license plates and a pickup truck, but he couldn't make out the numbers. The officer began a cautious pursuit. Recent weather conditions had created black ice without the benefit of street lights. The roads looked normal, but were treacherously covered with patches of slippery ice. is now shutting down Officer mcknight radioed for assistance, please alert all available units. Several Nebraska state troopers mobilized to try to intercept the truck.

Whoever was in the truck seemed to have no regard for his own safety as the roads were clear of traffic. Nobody. something else was in danger mcknight decided that the high speed chase wasn't worth the risk, it seemed like he knew the area he was in and due to the fact that he would take more risks and drive faster than me, he was finally able to disappear. . The truck disappeared into the night. I had asked the department for help and all the agents and state troopers were working and we combed the entire area looking for that vehicle to no avail.

Nebraska police issued a warning bulletin for the maroon truck with Texas plates, but that night no one saw the vehicle or its driver. A week later, 40 miles away, in North Platte, Nebraska, officers responded to a call from a farmer. He hadn't used his barn in years, so the farmer was surprised. Discovering that someone had recently been working there, leaving behind a strange workplace, agents found chemicals and other items available at farm supply stores. They had often seen this combination of materials in the area before they were the ingredients needed to make methamphetamine an illegal drug. Methamphetamine, a powerful stimulant, is also known as crank or speed.

It is easy to make from materials commonly found on farms. In recent years, the Midwest countryside has seen an epidemic of methamphetamine production, according to Lincoln County, Nebraska, Sheriff's Corporal Casey Nelms. Meth labs are a problem because it is such a rural area with a lot of abandoned farmhouses, farms where people no longer live, it gives these people the opportunity to come in and manufacture this drug virtually undetected. The drug is addictive and extremely dangerous users feel a temporary and then intense high. Paranoid and craving more, most users become aggressive and desperate when meth labs appear in an area.

Violent crimes continue during their search for the North Platte Barn meth lab. Officers found several emails that were addressed to Charles Moses Jr. of Nacona. Texas agents contacted Texas authorities asking for information about Moisés. They received photographs of Moisés and learned that there were arrest warrants for him for the theft of several firearms. Nebraska investigators also discovered that Moisés was driving a brown pickup truck with Texas license plates that matched the make and model of the truck. the description of the one who had evaded deputy mcknight just a week earlier if charles moses was making meth, there was a good chance he was using it too, that could explain why moses drove so recklessly the night of the chase that people who use this they become very paranoid they have no pain threshold sometimes they are awake for days and it is just a real problem they are difficult to handle during their rounds in the close-knit communities of the area the police showed Moses' photo and asked if anyone had noticed a stranger who fit his description.

Some residents reported seeing it in the past. We were pretty sure he was in the area, but no one had seen him in several days and Moisés had no local address as of 11 p.m. m. on February 12, 2000, a week later. Methamphetamine lab discovered. Lincoln County Corporal Casey Nelms was about to start his shift, as was his routine, he had a cup of coffee before hitting the road, but that night would turn out to be anything but routine through of the window. Nelm saw a vehicle that matched the description of Charles Moses' truck. Oh, good night to you too, but he needed to see the driver.

When he got out of the truck, he looked like the guy we were looking for. The truck had Texas license plates seven to one six 1089. Nelms headed out to check the man's identification, but the man first talked to the roads like they were pretty slippery where you're going. He's just dating, he's dating. I approached him and asked him if he was there, where he was going, what he was doing. I asked for his ID and when he gave it to me the name on the driver's license was Charles Moses, you are under arrest. I was really hoping that once I located him in the vehicle I would be able to you know, get him out of the vehicle without any problem and put him under arrest, but he was spectacularly strong.

I just couldn't do anything with it except keep fighting with it to try to keep the gun away from my face. Moses shot 1089 Big shots were fired in the parking lot. I was pretty sure two of my bullets hit the second bullet. I saw that it hit the back of the taxi and the third bullet also hit the back of the taxi. Nelms tried to follow Moisés, but the fugitive drove with the recklessness of a man high on methamphetamine and missing. Nebraska State Patrol officers heard the gunshots and joined the search for the possible cop killer.

Lincoln County Sheriff's Deputy Stan McKnight, who would pursue the brown truck before learning of the chase on the radio that he needed to position. himself in a place where he was likely to intercept Moses there is an area that is commonly called the correction line it is an area where I could see as best I thought possible three different paths that crossed that area and that was the middle one that I could see a mile behind me and a mile ahead of me mcknight waited in the dark hoping he was in the right place after about 10 or 15 minutes of sitting there a vehicle came from the west at the same intersection of the road I was on and when I got right in front of myvehicle, I turned on my headlights and saw the vehicle which was the same identical vehicle that I had seen less than two weeks prior, traveling over 70 to 80 miles per hour and in nighttime conditions.

It was hard to see and he was out of range. Deputy McKnight quickly tried to maintain a view of the truck, but the vehicle appeared to disappear once again, prompting a change in tactics. At that point, he had already pulled ahead of me at the same time I had to slow down and check driveways and road intersections to make sure he hadn't swerved toward me, then the officer saw the brake lights. of a vehicle in the distance that was idling at an empty intersection. Officer McKnight asked Moisés for reinforcements. He had already shot at an officer, it was too dangerous for the officer to advance alone, he waited for the backup officers before they arrived, Moisés made his move, one bullet entered Stan McKnight's head, another went through his hand as he realized that I had been hit by a bullet I was going to try to call the rest of the officers to let them know what was happening only when I grabbed the microphone I couldn't speak my mouth was full of blood and I was starting to choke like that I fell and found some napkins on the seat and they put them in my mouth so that the blood came out and I spit it out and I was able to speak and let them know that they had hit me and that the issue had gone to the left and the officer was going to pursue him despite his injuries. mcknight wasn't going to stop chasing him the wind was coming through the holes in the windshield blowing glass all over my left eye was completely closed from the blood my right eye my eye was only blinking but I could still see enough of my headlights to keep moving down the road road according to the coordinates.

McKnight radioed several Nebraska State Patrol teams to patrol positions in the area. They drove with their headlights and lights off so they could not alert Moses, the police officers in two cars positioned themselves on a dark county road and waited minutes later when the headlights appeared, it was Moses. One of the police officers spotted a gun after firing a full magazine at Moses. The police officer realized that a bullet had gone through his bulletproof vest. He was losing blood rapidly. The wound in his chest appeared to be life-threatening. They called an ambulance from a hospital dozens of miles away on the dark prairie.

The soldiers hoped their fallen friend would survive in a frantic escape. Charles Moses had shot both of them. a deputy sheriff as a state trooper, although deputy mcknight seriously injured, continued the pursuit of moses a man willing to kill to continue on the run in february 2000 nebraska authorities confronted charles moses a fugitive from texas suspected of running a laboratory of methamphetamine who escaped led police on a high-speed chase shooting an officer in the head and a state trooper in the chest before disappearing into the night paramedics stabilized the wounded trooper then transported him to the emergency room more Nearby helping to process the crime scene was Nebraska State Patrol Sergeant Lynn Williams, we secured the area and then our main concern was obviously evidence collection, so we collected the trooper's service pistol, his duty and the gun belt, we passed the display cases that were still at the scene, we took 35 millimeter photographs and videotaped the scene, Moisés had fired several bullets, one of them hit the reflective seal of the cruiser, perhaps the Lo The only thing visible on the dark meadow was that the bullet had gone through the door of the police patrol car, hit the police officer in the abdomen, pierced his bulletproof vest and traveled through his body to penetrate all the protection that the weapon had. which Moses used against the police.

For a powerful one, it was obvious that this was a high-powered rifle. We were looking for some type of assault rifle, something large caliber and high power. State police took the spent rifle bullets to their ballistics lab for analysis. The technicians there examined the size. weight and metallic composition of the bullets determined that they were high velocity bullets probably fired from a 762 sks military assault rifle deadly weaponry designed for trained military personnel something completely different in the hands of a criminal after multiple shots fired by the police the fbi Joined the effort to capture Moses, Special Agent Ron Rawal took the call at the FBI's normally quiet resident agency in North Platte, Nebraska.

Our caseload is primarily in the area of ​​white collar crime and it is not very common that we are called upon to assist in investigations of violent criminal activity. Agent Raywald gathered information to obtain an illegal flight and avoid an indictment against Moisés. In this particular case, we anticipated that Moses would leave the state of Nebraska after fleeing arrest and that the FBI could help locate him in hopes of catching Moses before he left. Nebraska authorities set up a command center at a state police barracks. Officers from virtually every law enforcement agency in the state shared intelligence on Moisés.

Several had had run-ins with him, usually in connection with clandestine methamphetamine laboratories. We lived there too, so we knew we had to be aware of this and target those areas for a search. Hundreds of police vehicles across the state were mobilized with officers searching for any sign of Charles Moses or his brown pickup truck in the sprawling rural landscape, finding Moses. It wouldn't be easy, investigators also hope the public will help in the search. Media bulletins urged citizens to avoid Moisés and to call the police if they saw him. The farmer found tire tracks that led to a garage where his parents' car was normally kept.

Instead, there was a brown van. His parents' car was missing. He recognized the truck from media reports. The farmer called the police. The Nebraska State Patrol confirmed that the truck belonged to Charles Moses and that officers had struck the vehicle while returning fire. The license plate we were looking for was still displayed on the truck that was registered to Mr. Moses. He had evidence that he had been shot with a firearm. The bullet holes were in the rear of the vehicle. taxi had smashed the rear window of the taxi some had lodged in the dashboard of the taxi and others had passed out through the front windshield make sure you get this wheel investigators also found evidence that the suspect was wounded by at least one of the many gunshots shot at the vehicle, we located human blood in the cabin, the interior of the truck, which led us to believe that possibly when the Lincoln County deputy had shot Moisés at the beginning of the incident, he had possibly been hit, but if Moses was injured. he had the perfect drug to keep him alert without pain and aggressive to keep running without sleeping there was a huge amount of paraphernalia located in his truck that deals with cooking or the methamphetamine manufacturer he practically had had a laboratory present in the back of the The truck also found survival equipment, police radios and weapons in the truck.

What they didn't find was the high-powered assault rifle that Moisés used to shoot two police officers an hour after the SUV was found and 60 miles northwest in Ogallala, Nebraska, the Nebraska State Patrol. I answered a call from a man who said he was an acquaintance of Charles Moses. He was in a car. He asked me if he hasn't seen you in a while. The man said that he had seen Moisés 15 minutes earlier. Moses spoke to him at a truck stop in a car that matched the description of the vehicle missing from the Dickens farm.

Moisés heard a radio bulletin saying police were searching for the vehicle. If you see this vehicle calling station, he panicked and left. The man said that he had waited. 15 minutes to call the police because at first he was afraid that the dangerous fugitive would know where his family lived. Police were concerned that Moses changed vehicles again to throw them off his trail two hours after the last sighting and 20 miles south of the truck stop in Paxton, Nebraska. The farmer noticed fresh tire tracks outside a house on his family's farm, a house that was closed and unused.

He called his family to ask if anyone had been in the house, but they told him about bulletins warning about a dangerous fugitive in the area was told he must leave the scene immediately. A family member on the line heard the farmer talking to someone. The police would soon learn that Charles Moses had just claimed his first murder victim. The deadly fugitive was still on the run and now more desperate than ever. February 14, 2000 36 hours after fugitive Charles Moses seriously injured two Nebraska law enforcement officers a murder investigation was launched in Paxton Nebraska the victim was a local farmer killed while talking to a family member on his cell phone the team investigation had to reconstruct the murder crime scene clues circumstances indicated that charles moses was involved nebraska state police sergeant lynn williams we had learned that the victim had driven by the abandoned farm to check tire tracks what he observed we believe surprised moses and moses reacted with that surprise and shot the victim who killed him, Moisés then drugged the victim from the victim's truck, placed him on the ground and then Moisés returned to the victim's truck and left the scene.

Police found tracks consistent with the model of truck the farmer was driving, as well as broken glass. From the truck on the side of the driveway, the position of the glass suggested that the driver's side window of the vehicle had been blown out. FBI Special Agent Ron Raywalt knew the glass was an important clue. I anticipated that Moses would try to use a self-defense defense. claiming he was returning fire from someone shooting at him, he knew he could determine how many shots were fired and the direction in which they originated When a high-velocity projectile hits a piece of glass and the glass shatters, the physical characteristics are left in question. the glass this answers questions for the crime scene investigator tells them which bullet hit first and the direction of travel of the bullet the glass would be examined later in the lab behind a barn the stolen car in which it was seen was found to Moisés for the last time driving the car He seemed hastily abandoned in the back seat.

The police found chemicals, knives and several firearms. It appeared that Moisés had changed vehicles after hearing a radio report that police were searching for this car. It was very obvious that Mr. Moisés had been trying to hide or camouflage the vehicle. The vehicle had a tarp over it and Moisés was in the process of covering the vehicle with broken and dead branches, tree branches and that type of thing. Investigators found the victim's identification, but could not find the cell phone he was using when he was killed. They believed that Moisés had the phone with him in the farmer's blue truck.

They issued a warning order for the vehicle and contacted cell phone companies to begin tracking the cell phone signal while the powered cell phones are constantly searching for the nearest tower to be ready. Using police can dial a specific phone number and know which tower serves it Two hours after the farmer's murder was discovered, a cell phone tower in Oshkosh, Nebraska picked up the missing phone's signal, but before the police could respond to the location, the missing cell phone signal the FBI also studied glass shards from the crime scene at the farm. I was able to determine that a bullet had been fired from outside the truck into the truck and that the bullet then passed through the truck.

My examination further revealed that no shots were fired from inside the truck this was not self-defense this was murder look at this with the murder of the farmer the theft of his truck the FBI issued another federal warrant against Charles Moses the facts of the case had changed significantly and I was able to change the process of requesting a warrant to charge Mr. Moses with the federal statute of auto theft with a homicide they close their doors with Charles Moses roaming the state armed and out of control Nebraska Governor Mike Johanns held a press conference to warn the public that this is the situation we need to go through the police are looking for charles it was clear that the fugitive was ready to kill civilians to get what he wanted.

He was considered armed and dangerous that night 80 miles to thewest, near the border with nebraska, wyoming, an elderly woman was enjoying a quiet afternoon and heard someone break through a door she could hear an intruder walking through the house and then approaching her room, it was too late to escape , so he did his best to hide the news of the night, it said that Moses killed the last resident, it surprised him, it sounded like he was looking for something. and then she came out, the woman was unharmed and called the police from a neighbor's house. She explained that she never saw the man's face, but deputies with the Scottsbluff, Nebraska, sheriff's department found tire tracks consistent with those on the slain farmer's stolen pickup truck.

They also recovered the car. glass near the left tire track its position suggested it came from the driver's side window the window investigators believe Moisés shot while killing the farmer local officials contacted the FBI about the new development of the facts of the case and the type of glass left in that At the crime scene it was obvious that Moses had been involved in that robbery and was traveling westbound with Charles Moses, believed to be near the western border of Nebraska. The FBI notified Wyoming legal agencies that a killer could be headed toward the small town of Lusk Wyoming is 20 miles from the Nebraska border in Lusk Police Department Chief Gary Gill received the FBI bulletin that morning , we heard about charles moses in our office, we knew he was driving a nebraska blue pickup truck and that you could be heading in any direction, wyoming media warned the public about the fugitive around 1 pm that afternoon, the alerts of the media worked, we heard about a call from a trucker who had called dispatch and they informed us that possibly that Charles Moses truck was driving in the parking lot at the south end of the truck stop here in Lusk.

Deputy Chief Dusty Christman responded to the scene along with Chief Gill. Several vehicles in the parking lot fit the description. The officers knew that one of them could stop a murderer who also tried to kill. Two police officers were looking at the license plates, we saw a blue van that matched the description, the license plates matched, it was the van we decided to try to block him in if we could, the officers approached from opposite directions, there was someone inside but the officers did not could. I don't know if it was Moses. The driver's side window of the truck appeared to be missing.

If it was Moses, he might have finally come off a long, emaciated meth binge. Chief Gill called for backup and waited for more units to arrive, then the driver woke up. He woke up but Deputy Chief Christman couldn't risk shooting because he couldn't see him well enough from his perspective to be absolutely sure that he was Moses. It meant another chase. Our greatest fears during the chase is when Moses turned onto the main street and headed north. We knew he was going to travel through our business district and it would most likely be at high speed and also the fear of losing him once he passed the city limits and headed north on Highway 85.

Weeks after Charles Moses' wave of violence began. Law enforcement once again had him in their sights after eluding Nebraska authorities at the FBI. Suspected killer Charles Moses had crossed into Lusk Wyoming and the police were in pursuit, but Moses had the advantage and never hesitated for a moment. Mr. Moses finally escaped from us. highway 85 on the road to our ranch the road was very deteriorated our small two wheel drive vehicles could not keep up with him in four wheel drive in the truck he had, he went down to a ranch and crossed an old dam and climbed to the pastures through fences and things where we couldn't chase them, the authorities lost it again, so the lost police teamed up with the niobrara county sheriff's department, sheriff samuel reed helped design a 10 mile perimeter to contain Moses, the perimeter was a very large area that we were Fortunately, in one sense it was located in the middle of the street of the major highways and we had another county road that basically dissected it down the middle, but they couldn't rush, no We were sure what his actions were going to be, so we stayed away knowing he had a hyper rifle.

All law enforcement officers in the area, including game and fish wardens, set up roadblocks to search for Moses and warn travelers to stay away. They also met with residents who live within the 10-mile perimeter asking questions. to remain alert and call the police at the first sign of any suspicious activity. I had a deep concern that if we didn't stop Moses before it got dark, we would have a terrible, terrible time finding him. He knew the ranch people who were there. I was very, very concerned for his safety because he entered the house at gunpoint, took him hostage and shot them and took the vehicle and left the area, even though Moisés was somewhere within the 10 mile perimeter, the terrain made it too dangerous for agents to enter. on foot without body armor and tactical training they would be vulnerable to an ambush or sniper attack so for officers to get in there would have been extremely difficult there are many deep pine tree ravines that you could get into it would have been very It is very, very difficult to get in there and Finding it thanks to Special Agent Ron Raywald helped Wyoming authorities with federal resources from the FBI.

The Wyoming FBI office brought in two planes to assist in the search on state highways and rural roads trying to locate the The vehicle Moses was in was flying in a grid pattern over the area where one of the planes spotted the truck that Moses was last seen driving. It seemed as if he was trapped in a ravine. The Nebraska State Patrol SWAT team was flown to the area. Moisés was armed with a high-powered rifle the swat team had to move cautiously man by man an aggressive fugitive drugged powerfully could be behind any tree ready to kill they positioned themselves on top of the truck but they had no vision of charles moses he could be looking at them waiting for a clean shot they had to start their search from the truck to stun and distract anyone who was nearby they fired a percussion grenade flashbang he wasn't there they found footprints in the mud next to the truck and began to follow them but between the trees the trail had eluded us and the people right at the scene, had eluded a SWAT team that had flown in from Nebraska that night, Moses would surface again at 8:30 p.m. m., rancher Jim Cramer and his son Justin heard his dog barking at him.

Something behind the house they knew about Moisés, yes, then Justin came out arm in arm and someone was out there I have a gun, don't go beyond the brief glance, they thought it was Moisés, the gunman had to be stopped, Justin, take your rifle, go around to the back, get on his back, and then do what you have to do. do ok cramers was unarmed in a confrontation with a desperate fugitive who had never hesitated to use violence the rancher had a plan and he hoped it would work in eastern wyoming a rancher and his son found fugitive charles moses on his property according to reports from rancher jim cramer media knew Moses was wanted for shooting several police officers and killing a farmer over his truck.

Justin, you know, in the back, Justin Craters went to cover Moses from behind. The father risked his life in hopes of ending the fugitives' rampage without further violence. He was totally unarmed. Moisés had a rifle and a large-caliber pistol in his hands in the hope that his son could protect him if his plan failed. Jim Cramer offered Moses a deal that he knew the fugitive had been exposed to the cold rains of the day and put him there next to that wheel if Moses put down their weapons and went inside. The rancher would give him a hot meal and throw his clothes in the dryer.

This was a plan in my head that if I put him in the house I had nothing to fear from him because we would know that he. He had no weapons, it was too cold and if he ran out of the house without clothes, why wouldn't he be in good shape? I rarely invite someone to my house without asking them to eat. Then I knew he was hungry, so I said, let's eat something. If they took him inside, they would try to call the police without him knowing. At the time, Justin Cramer had Moses in his sights.

It looked like Moses was going for it, so he tensed up. Alright, I put my rifle down now, where's the other guy you're with right behind you? Jim Cramer's hope is that Moses would not involve his son in his violence. My biggest concern throughout the entire ordeal was that my son wouldn't have to shoot someone I didn't. I didn't want it, you know, with justice or injustice. I didn't want him to have to go through life knowing that he had killed a person if he became violent. Justin couldn't hesitate. One of the fears he had was if he had to shoot. at him so he could miss, I only had one shot while he had up to six in his pistol, where I had a single shot rifle after weeks of a meth induced rampage, Charles Moses finally slowed down, okay, Let's enter the house he left. his weapons outside, I never really lowered my rifle, I lowered it a little, but in a quick enough time to have it back up to put it on if he needed it inside the warm house and out of his wet clothes, Moses concentrated.

At his first hot meal in days I was able to walk out the front door of the house and was gone for about five minutes while I called the sheriff from my brother's house and then I was able to come back through the same door while he never realized I was going to know what is happening. A police officer and a Wyoming game warden were there within minutes because of Kramer's plan. The wild and deadly fugitive had nothing to fight after an astonishing chase across hundreds of miles filled with robberies, carjackings, shootouts and murders. jr was eventually in police custody as they theorized that Nebraska officers had injured Moses at a hospital in Cheyenne Wyoming.

Moisés was treated for a gunshot wound to the shoulder, dehydration and exhaustion. The drugs he had taken and the police who relentlessly pursued him had overwhelmed him. FBI Ground Special Agent Ron Raywald arranged for Moses to be transported back to Nebraska the morning after the arrest, when I drove to Cheyenne, Wyoming, taking a Nebraska State Patrol lieutenant with me and Deputy Casey Nelms, to the individual who originally attempted to initiate the arrest, the purpose of taking these two individuals with me was so that when I returned to Nebraska with Moisés, both individuals could affect the respective warrants they were carrying.

The patrol lieutenant arrested Moisés for the violation of shooting Nebraska. The State Patrol and Casey Nelms arrested Moses for the farmer's murder, as well as the shooting of the two Lincoln County deputies. Moses initially fought the charges against him, but when faced with ballistics and other forensic evidence, he pleaded guilty to avoid the death penalty. Charles Moses Jr. pleaded no contest to second-degree murder and two counts of assault on an officer. of cop. He was sentenced to 190 years in prison. The state trooper shot by Moses returned to light duty in June 2000. Moses had also been shot in Lincoln County. deputy sheriff stan mcknight head in hand spent almost two months in the hospital never willing to give up mcknight was determined to return to his regular patrol i had to return for several different surgeries totaling nine surgeries and 23 months of i continued the therapy after the doctors said they had done everything they could for me.

They tested me and we went through all the physical skills and I was able to go back to work and maintain and do what I was doing before meth became the biggest drug problem in the Midwest Law enforcement is dedicated to fighting it at any time. cost. A Tennessee community is shocked when a beloved elderly woman disappears while investigators investigate. The mystery of her disappearance deepens. The truth begins to emerge, but slowly and in unexpected directions as the police. and the FBI try to help a small town in trouble find her dear friend in 1992. A woman disappeared from her home in Memphis when she failed to collect the ransom.

The FBI suspected a desperate amateur and feared the worst. I'm Jim Calstrom, former head of the FBI in New York. As the search for the woman continued, investigators uncovered a web of lies and false accusations designed to conceal the real perpetrator in Memphis, Tennessee, on August 7, 1992, 25 miles outside the city, in thesmall town of Eeds, successful property developer Alan Roberts arrived home from work as usual, his wife's car was in the driveway, but he was surprised to find the mail there. His wife, Doe Roberts, usually left a note when she went out, but there was none. No, in the kitchen, Allen saw Doe's asthma medications on the counter.

She always took the inhaler. When she came out, he called his closest friends who were nearby Bill, yes, Bill, this is Alan, have you seen Doe today? Have you been there? No one he spoke to had heard from Doug Robert. He was worried that he might have had an asthma attack while gardening. He searched the grounds of his farm. There was no sign of money. He was about to call the police when the phone rang. Hello. He was a man who spoke with an Asian accent. What do you mean, what do you think? What do you want? ? the caller demanded a ransom of 100,000 for Return is safe, no problem, I can take care of it, it will just take a little time, just let me know what you want me to do and I will do it right, but I won't He explained where to take the money.

What do you want me to take before hanging up? Hello, Allen immediately called the Shelby County Sheriff's Department and told them about his wife's disappearance in the rescue call he received, the team of deputies and sheriff's inspectors responded to the home. Roberts told them yes. I didn't recognize the voice of the caller and didn't know anyone who wanted to harm Dough. As he continued the interview, agents from the FBI's Memphis field office arrived. Eage is about 30 miles from the Arkansas and Mississippi borders, if someone were to take Doe across state lines, the FBI would take the lead since transporting a victim from one state to another is a federal crime.

Roberts explained that he last saw his wife that morning. They had had breakfast together as they had every morning for 43 years at 10. Allen left to meet a potential prospective out-of-town buyer of a property he was developing the buyer a man named Sam Wagner had called the day. earlier to make an appointment to view the property at 10:30 that morning, Robert said he waited more than an hour, but Sam Wagner never showed that he spent the rest. in the afternoon putting grass on another of his development properties, investigators needed to search the house for evidence, Roberts showed them Doe's asthma inhaler and said that if he had a serious attack without it he could die, they needed to find it immediately looking for signs of forcing.

Entry agents checked doors and windows, nothing seemed suspicious, knowing that people sometimes flee by voluntarily faking kidnappings to cover themselves. The agents searched Doe's bedroom, her suitcases and all of his clothes were still there, as were his valuables, it did not appear that she had left alone. If someone had kidnapped her, one clue suggested it happened outside, according to FBI Special Agent Joanne. In general, Alan Roberts located the mail in the middle of the garage and it was not brought to the house. He suspected his wife had gone to the mailbox. and had never returned. Officers formed search lines that spread out in a grid pattern to scour the 150-acre farm for any sign of the 65-year-old woman or what happened to her despite the efforts of multiple search teams they found nothing.

The best chance for a new lead would be additional ransom calls we began monitoring Alan Robert's phone immediately after the kidnapping with his consent we placed a recorder on his phone in case he received a call from the kidnapper, they also installed tracking equipment if the man with an Asian accent call again the FBI would be ready later that night the phone rang hello uh yeah it was coming from a nearby pay phone no just don't get hurt I'll do whatever you want agents headed towards the source of the call it sounded like the same man who called earlier said Doe was safe for now and knew the police were listening Robert said the caller ordered him to remove the tape of their conversation and smash it in the driveway, they quickly replaced it with a blank tape , well, oh, at that time there were no surveillance officers outside when the Shelby County deputies arrived at the pay phone, it was clear that whoever made the call had left at dawn.

The researchers expanded their search to the EADS community by asking friends and neighbors when the last time was. They saw mass and if they noticed anything unusual on the day of her disappearance, yes, surely no one remembered seeing her or hearing about her that day, yes, sir, a neighbor told investigators that there seemed to be tension at the church that week between Doe and Alan, but there were no solid leads. news of the kidnapping broke and news stations picked up the story joe burch of wmc-tv in memphis reported on the small community's reaction to doe's disappearance many people felt it must have been someone from the outside who committed this crime because these people They worshiped together, they went to Square Dancers together, they spent a lot of time together and their focus was their little community and staying away from downtown Memphis and all the danger that could be here, so I think the people in the EADS community I felt like a stranger. probably committed this crime, but investigators wondered how in a place like eids a stranger was not noticed when the first full day of the investigation reached a nearby point, the special agent's general concern grew in the 24 hours immediately following a kidnapping are critical as time passes, the chances of finding the victim alive decreased rapidly on the second day, community members gathered to show their support and offer prayers for the safe return of the doe, while that the people of Edes prayed.

Investigators turned their attention to the most likely suspect in a case like this. We always look at the family. Members and family members, the people closest to the victim first and then working the circle outward, needed to start with husband Alan Roberts, it was possible that he had harmed Dough and then used an accomplice to make the ransom calls. It's always difficult when family members find out. are suspects the authorities had to ask the worried husband to take a polygraph test. It was an unexpected request, but Alan agreed. A polygraph measures a subject's physiological reactions as he answers questions.

The subject reviews all questions before the test, so there are no surprises, although commonly. Called a lie detector test, a polygraph does not actually detect lies, it only detects whether the subject exhibits the characteristics that most people exhibit when they lie spikes in heart rate, perspiration, blood pressure and breathing, are you convinced that I will only ask you questions that we have already gone over before, although polygraph results are rarely admissible in court. Many researchers believe that they point them in the right direction. The examiner asked Roberts questions unrelated to the case to establish a basis for truthful answers.

He then asked her questions about her relationship with Doe and the events of The Day She Disappeared, the examiner interpreted the graphical output to determine whether Roberts appeared to have been deceptive in his questions about the case. In his opinion, Alan Roberts answered all questions honestly. Alan was sure this was the end, but the agents knew the proof. the results were not always accurate they could not remove it yet to verify robert's story the fbi wanted to find sam wagner the man he supposedly went to meet the morning of the doe kidnapping we think that sam wagner may have entered this area and because of his financial situation endorsements and involvements that he may have kidnapped Doe Roberts for the money they had because they had a substantial amount of money.

Agents checked FBI databases and DMV records nationwide looking for someone named Sam Wagner in several states. FBI agents interviewed men with that name but eliminated them. each one as a suspect alan robert's story became more suspicious when sam wagner became an unknown individual that we could not locate and it became more evident to us that alan roberts could be behind the kidnapping he seems to realize it I don't think he is If Alan did something to his wife, perhaps the couple's phone records and bank statements would reveal a clue that there was nothing unusual about any of the phone calls, however, investigators uncovered only evidence of one life. normal in a small town with no signs of contact with anyone suspicious and no record of spending money after August 7, no leads emerged, they finally came to believe that Doe Roberts was dead after approximately two or three weeks of being unable to locate the victim, which would most likely end up being a homicide.

I requested through my supervisor that we bring the Shelby County Sheriff's Department into the investigation to make it a joint investigation if if it were a murder, it would be prosecuted in state court, the team returned to the Roberts home, the second Search of Allen Roberts property was done more in a forensic mood and we were looking for blood spatters in the house and also in the barn. roberts cooperated, he would do anything. Forensic technicians from the FBI and sheriff's department processed the buildings for any evidence of a murder, cleaning or disposal of a body. They also collected hair and carpet fibers from Allen's truck to compare with any evidence recovered later.

The search lasted two full days. Alan Roberts became increasingly frustrated that law enforcement had to spend so much time on him as a suspect that he was wearing down and the real kidnapper was somewhere in 1992, the Shelby County Sheriff's Department and the Memphis FBI searched for Alan Roberts. farm and its buildings for any sign of his wife's possible murder, Roberts had passed a polygraph and now none of the items on his property tested positive for blood, but no other suspects emerged and investigators had developed circumstantial evidence implicating roberts, although several witnesses had seen roberts. That day his confirmed alibi only lasted about five hours.

Authorities knew that left plenty of time to dispose of the body. Additionally, some members of the EADS community gave statements alleging that Alan Roberts had acted suspiciously after Doe's disappearance, according to Special Agent Joanne. Generally, people within the community felt that he did not openly mourn the loss of his wife; he was socializing shortly after he was kidnapped; that both he and his wife were members of a square dancing group and within a couple of weeks, Allen was back in square dancing. group with several partners news anchor joe birch observed robert's lack of emotion during media coverage when someone's wife goes missing, one would expect to see a level of emotion and we just didn't see it in alan roberts, he was just calm, calm and collected. and very direct and there weren't a lot of teary-eyed emotional appeals that we see a lot in kidnapping cases.

Investigators continued to watch Roberts as he tried to move on with his life, struggling with the frustration of not knowing where his wife was and being the only suspect in her disappearance, but they saw nothing that led them to Joe Roberts in September, the man with the Asian accent. resurfaced now saying that alan was involved hi, the kidnapper started calling people in the eads community indicating that doe roberts was still alive, many of the phone calls indicated that allen was part of the plan to kidnap his wife. He was extremely frustrating because he never gave specific points for leaving money.

Several of the people who spoke to the kidnapper had caller ID on their phones, so agents traced the calls to phone booths. on a busy road we would go to the phone booth immediately and of course the person making the call had already left, other people had already used the phone, we would check the phones for possible fingerprints and there was never any evidence . To link an individual to that phone, each of the calls was made within a few miles of Robert's home, a significant risk in a small community that was talking about the case. This audacity suggested that the caller was an insider familiar enough to go unnoticed in public and considered out of reach of investigators desperate for something solid.

Alan Roberts took matters into his own hands by offering a reward for Doe's safe return and announcing that he disconnected FBI recording and tracking equipment from his phone so the kidnapper could call freely on October 8,1992. Two months after Doe disappeared, the kidnapper called Alan Roberts again and told him to drive to a pay phone at a country store about a mile away. Now Roberts hurried to the store once more. He was alone without any corroborating witnesses to prove what was happening. The phone was already ringing when he arrived, he hoped this would finally be his chance to get his wife back two months after someone kidnapped Doe Roberts, 65, the kidnapper ordered her husband Alan Roberts to a pay phone . “Hello, the man with the Asian accent,” Doe said. was alive and still with him he asked roberts for the name of an intermediary someone alan trusted and that the kidnapper could contact the church robert suggested charles lord a prominent member of the church and friend of the family the caller said who would be contacted to find out where to bring the ransom money, well, Charles Lord, the man Roberts chose as his intermediary was a public official and treasurer of the local church.

He publicly appealed to the kidnapper on behalf of Alan Robert, asking him to call him and finally give him specific instructions for a ransom. everyone wanted to recover money there. More calls came from the kidnapper to Charles Lord and other members of the community, but there were still no details of an exchange in November 1992. Charles Lord called investigators to his home. Special Agent Joanne generally hoped that they would finally have direct communication. link to kidnapper Charles Lord stated that late at night he heard a car in his driveway, he walked to the mailbox and there was a letter in his mailbox that was a kidnapping ransom letter.

Investigators were glad to have physical evidence, fingerprints, hair. The fibers on the letter could provide a link to the kidnapper, but when they got to it they found the evidence was contaminated. Charles Lord took this letter and showed it to several people before we were called and got the letter, so there were quite a few fingerprints on the letter before we received it. The laboratory examiners check all the fingerprints determining that they belong to Lord and the people he let handle the letter nothing to lead them to the kidnapper the message was not helpful either the ransom had been reduced but still no instructions for a delivery it seemed like the kidnapper was playing with them in case he came again contact Lord the agents set up a trap our office set up surveillance on his mailbox using a hidden camera that was literally placed in a birdhouse near the mailbox if the kidnapper fell On another note, they would record it.

Officers also installed listening and recording devices on Lord's phone. They still had no real evidence against Alan Roberts, but a new suspect was being developed. Charles Lord began to take an active role in the investigation and often stopped by the sheriff's office. office to check on his progress agents began to suspect that he seemed overly interested his suspicion deepened due to the peculiar nature of the phone calls he claimed to have received from the kidnapper Charles Lord said he received several phone calls from the kidnapper and said he spoke with doe roberts , which was unusual because none of the other callers spoke to joe roberts.

The agents never received tapes of the calls, but every time he received a phone call it seemed like our equipment was down for the next week. Lord reported another ransom letter and one of the sleeping tissues placed in his mailbox, officers did not recover evidence of the items but hoped his camera would capture images of the kidnapper. They had enough of the usual mailman, but when the tape got to where the kidnapper was supposed to appear it went blank when the equipment that was placed at Charles Lloyd's residence continued to fail I just thought we had poor equipment eventually it became apparent that someone was. manipulating the agents suspected that the interference came from Charles Lord then the victim's husband, Alan Roberts, reported a strange encounter with Lord, he said that the night before at the Edes Community Center Lord summoned him to a private meeting Alan was surprised When his friend offered to help him recover the money for a price, Allen Roberts told me that Charles Lord had informed him that he had contacts in the underworld and that information was available if Charles could get some money to pay for it.

Alan also reported at that time that Charles Lord was carrying a gun. It was clear that Lord was involved in some way, but investigators needed more than suspicion. They needed proof. On March 4, 1993, seven months after Dough disappeared, there was another twist. In the case of Memphis news anchor Joe Burch, he received a call to his office. He had never recorded a telephone conversation before, but I decided to record this conversation right now. The call triggered in my mind that it could be the same individual. who has been making the anonymous calls in the Doe Roberts case and tried to get the man to stay on the line as long as he wanted while Burch spoke to the man with an Asian accent, he tried to get details about who the person he called was . was and what happened to masa when birch tried to set up a ransom delivery the caller hung up hello hello i took the tape directly to my boss's office we immediately called the fbi and the shelby county sheriff's department what can you tell us?

The researchers accepted wmc. Television aired the tape in the hope that it would bring out the kidnapper. The kidnapper called again. He was angry. They aired the tape and demanded no more coverage, but this time Joe Burch got him to do what no one else had arranged: deliver a ransom. Sheriff's deputies and inspectors gambled. left the drop off location ready to grab the caller who had eluded them for so long as told by a wmc tv reporter drove to the location with 80,000 in cash, everyone waited in hope but the kidnapper never showed that was going well, other agents did not.

Charles Lord was home all the time. Weeks passed without any movement in the case. Then, in June 1993, the kidnapper arranged another visit. He called two of Doe's nephews and told them to take the ransom money to a local motel. Soon, the elusive kidnapper would finally appear. June 1993 Investigators working on Doe Roberts' kidnapping staked out an Eids Tennessee motel. Special Agent Joanne was generally part of the surveillance. Doe Roberts' nephews received a call from the kidnapper and tried to make an arranged ransom payment. They were told to go to a motel room. which they did, but they also called the FBI.

They were waiting to get a phone call or meet with someone. Other surveillance officers had been unable to find suspect Charles Lord that night as the team at the motel watched a man approach. It was Lord he went to. In the room the nephews had rented, Charles Lord told Doe Roberts' nephews that he had received a call from the kidnapper and that he should go there and pick up the money and that he would receive a phone call to find out where to take the money, but the nephews did not give him the money they said they wanted to deal directly with a kidnapper investigators were sure that was exactly who they were dealing with he is the only individual who had received a phone call indicating that he had spoken with doe roberts and was now meeting with someone to collect money, but we didn't have enough evidence at that time to move forward with an arrest.

However, they increased their focus on Lord to seek a financial motive for the kidnapping. The FBI subpoenaed Lord's bank records. went through the records trying to determine if he had loans and what his financial holdings were and it became clear that Charles Lord owed a lot of money to various banks in the city, substantial amounts of money and that he was unable to make the payments and that he had gone into bankruptcy. bankruptcy and circumstantial evidence allowed investigators to obtain a search warrant for Lord's home. At the end of June 1993 they served the order allowing them to search and confiscate any financial documents.

Some of the

files

they recovered revealed Lord's criminal past. He had embezzled. over 150,000 from the Memphis warehouse where he had retired several years earlier and had embezzled approximately seventy thousand dollars from the Eastern Church where he served as church treasurer. The man had access to parish bank accounts and cash donations despite finding that investigators still had no direct evidence of the kidnapping. We had nothing we could use to charge him with kidnapping for the murder of Doe Roberts. It was important to get a confession from Charles Lord because we didn't have a good body, maybe this will help us.

An agent who worked on the case was trained in criminal profiling, analyzed Lord's actions, offered a behavioral profile to help obtain a confession, suggested that Lord was a manipulative pathological liar who believed himself untouchable, the agent felt that Overwhelming the suspect's ego was the only way to hit him, which you guys need to do, the plan was to bring Lord in for an interview and let him see what he would take as evidence of a massive investigation against him. For months, agents created numerous boxes of evidence in hopes of overcoming Lord's belief that he was on top.

Then the investigation, on August 25, 1993, at the FBI field office in Memphis, investigators met with Lord and his attorney received some questions while Charles Lord was sitting in that room during the interview. I was watching him look at these boxes and realized that he had been under surveillance for a while. much more than he had anticipated and he became very nervous the FBI's tactics seemed to be working. The gentleman eventually admitted to making some of the ransom calls, saying he did it to keep the investigation alive for God's sake, but denied any involvement in kidnapping him feeling he was ready to snap.

The investigators offered him a deal. Our office and the Shelby County inspector told Charles Lord that if he took the polygraph and passed, we would not examine him further for the kidnapping of Doe Robert. If he failed the polygraph, his attorney and Charles Lord agreed to a further interview and interrogation. In reference to the kidnapping, he agreed after asking control questions to assess Lord's truthful response levels, the polygraph examiner asked about the mass , including whether Lord was involved in his kidnapping, did you harm the robbers? In the end, the examiner believed the polygraph results showed Lord was being deceptive.

The results could not be used in court, they meant that authorities could continue interrogating the suspect with the man's lawyer present in the interrogation room. FBI agents and inspectors from the Shelby County Sheriff's Department pressured the suspect by returning again and again to the polygraph results. I have every piece of evidence I need what I need you to do At first he continued to deny his involvement but after several hours the interview tactics wore him down the man said he was ready to tell them what happened he said he needed cash to pay his loans and cover The money he stole from the church and decided to kidnap Doe for ransom on August 6, 1992 he called the Roberts posing as a property buyer named Sam Wagner and agreed to meet Alan the next day when he learned that Ellen was waiting at the development property he was driving. at his house, Doe was bringing the mail.

There has been an accident. He knew she would trust him. Alan has been involved in an accident. Yes, get in the car and I'll take you with him. What happened? Know? Alright? The man told investigators that he planned to release money after he obtained the ransom, but she suffered a fatal heart attack in her car. He said he panicked and threw her body in her bag, but he didn't say where he would be willing to take her to where investigators believed. he was lying at least about planning to release money and maybe about other details special agent joanne generally knew they had to find the body to prove his story they offered a deal charles lord agreed to tell us where doe robert's body was after he confessed kidnapping in exchange for Shelby County not going after the death row lord claimed he dumped her in the Wolf River, a slow-flowing river that runs 90 miles through the southwest corner of the state, the Wolf River empties in Mississippi in Memphis, the man said he dumped the remains of a bridge in Fayette County, 13 miles from Robert's home, divers would begin 50 yards upstream looking for the body and wallet.

Lt. John Yancey of the Shelby County Sheriff's Department led the river divecloudy. We had 21 divers involved, they told visibility. in the river it was zero, it was completely black water and in the dark water several species of poisonous snakes, adding to the challenge was the fact that the crime took place a year before, any remains would be scattered and difficult to find. FBI agents and sheriff's deputies assisted. the divers stretched a rope across the width of the river, the divers held the rope and moved along it searching for the bottom of the river with their hands, normally you make an arm over your arm to look for a body because it is big, but we were looking content. of the bag at that moment to try to make sure that this was really the scene, so we had to lower it to where we were instead of doing the big arm swings.

We had to do what I call this, hand grab, that's where you just pick up the dirt with your hand and that way you can find everything that's at the bottom. Once the divers reached the other bank, the team would move the rope a foot downstream and start again each time a diver found something he pointed out and additional divers. We went in to mark and remove the item, we found a safe that had been stolen in a dry cleaning robbery and the money had fallen out of the safe and we found the pennies in the bottom and the dollar bills, but we didn't find any content. from his purse, so I feel like if we had found pennies at the bottom, we would have found his makeup or a wallet or IDs or whatever.

When I returned to it in 110 degree heat, the team continued its search for every square inch in my second. One day I was on the bridge and an older lady came up to me and said: I want you to do me a favor and I said: I'll try if I can. I want you to find us something today so we can get this. old beater so we can go ahead and bury the mass and be done with this case after three full days they had searched half a mile of the river they believed the body would not have gone any further than that in the lowland waters I went to see my boss my The boss and I told him that based on my experience and what we've done, she's not here, but if you want us to keep looking, we'll look into that running thing in Mississippi any way you want to do it, but I can tell you.

Right now she is not here. Investigators were convinced that Lord had unnecessarily lied to them, endangering the diving team. The special agent at large confronted Lord. We took Charles Lord to the site and explained to him that these divers were putting their lives in danger and that we needed to find the body and it didn't look like the body was there. The suspect had run out of lies. Now he was ready to tell investigators what really happened. Happened to Doe Roberts After a three-day search in Tennessee's Wolf River, dive leader Lt. John Yancey believed the remains of kidnapping victim Doe Roberts were not in the river.

We had looked everywhere possible and over the years of experience I would have already found something, whether it was some bones, some makeup or something I said based on my experiences. She is not here. The divers, she's not there. Investigators confronted the suspect Charles. Lord Dale realized that they would not give up until they discovered the truth. Lord admitted that Doe had not died of a heart attack in her car and said he took her to her house and tied her up in a room. above the garage he could never let his neighbor go now he tried to kill her with sleeping pills when that didn't work he suffocated her with a pillow the man said he buried her in the compost heap in his backyard on top of the body he put a layer of lime and then concrete in hopes of speeding up the decomposition they needed to determine if lord was telling the truth this time to recover evidence and give Doe's family closure knowing what happened the sheriff's department called in forensic anthropologists from the university of Tennessee after removing layers of leaves and compost they began the excavation.

Shelby County Sheriff's Lt. Ronald Goodwin oversaw the meticulous excavation. It's just using brushes and little tests, much like discovering artifacts and it's just one spoonful at a time to make sure you don't miss any evidence and make sure you don't do anything that could harm what evidence may be in the body after two hours They drilled a shell of concrete and lime into the space under a body the first thing we found was a hand, the rest of the body was lying face up in the grave, it took 17 hours to completely exhume the remains and what the researchers found surprised them: the skin was intact, the body was in such good condition that I felt that the many scientific tests we could perform could reveal it.

Is it poisoning, the cause of death, a sexual attack or whatever. It seemed that the actions the lord had taken, such as lime and so on on the upper part of the body, had worked in reverse and preserved the body for us. The most chilling detail was The position of the 65-year-old woman's hand. The only thing that was out of her normal position was the hand that was in front of her face in a defensive position with one finger extended. It seemed to investigators that maybe she wasn't dead when she was. buried maybe she was still alive maybe she was pushing up with her hand more than a year after Doe Roberts disappeared, the FBI and Alan Roberts presented their evidence on October 19, 1993, Charles Lord pleaded guilty to murder in the first degree and kidnapping and was sentenced to additional life imprisonment. 25 years old, Doe's husband Alan had endured being a suspect for months, when the truth came out he was finally able to put the dough to rest, but a challenge still remains for Alan Roberts.

It is an uneven closure. I am trying to forget about Charles Lord and I am praying that God will allow me to forgive him. I am praying that the money is in God's hands right now. Mr and Mrs Roberts enjoyed 43 years of marriage before they separated. He has faith that one day he will see her again.